While some like to pretend otherwise, the best way to stop some kind of deadly attack is to have someone there to shoot the attacker before they can get going. Uvalde would have looked very different if that had been the case. So would Parkland. The same for Oxford and Apalachee High Schools.
But a lot of people are uncomfortable with it. They’ve been conditioned to believe that guns lead to violence by a media that wants you to believe it, even though they know better.
Some places aren’t necessarily buying it or, if they did, are at least willing to reconsider.
Places like this school system in Texas.
Fredericksburg Independent School District officials have approved a program that allows some teachers to carry concealed firearms at school, with a district spokesperson saying the plan could provide an additional layer of campus security.
Fredericksburg ISD trustees voted last month to authorize district teachers to apply to carry concealed firearms in classrooms, if they meet certain criteria and pass a screening process.
The school district is already in compliance with state law that requires an armed police officer or guard on each campus, district spokesperson Rachel Malinak said.
“The main reason that we wanted to start allowing teachers or staff to apply to carry firearms is the safety and security of our staff and students,” district spokesperson Rachel Malinak told the Express-News. “It is our main priority.”
Fredericksburg ISD has one school resource officer — a law enforcement officer working at a school — covering the district’s six campuses and 3,000 students. However, each campus has armed security and the district has a “very good relationship with local law enforcement,” Malinak said.
Teachers will need to already have a state-issued concealed carry license to apply to the program, according to district officials. The screening process, which will be conducted by a third-party contractor, will include a psychological exam and a marksmanship test, according to the district.
Which staff members will be armed will not be made public, Malinak said.
Nor should they be. Part of the security is in not knowing which teachers are armed. That means they can’t be specifically targeted at the onset of an attack.
There’s something to keep in mind, though, and that’s the fact that this is now public and will likely prevent any attack. That’s not a bad thing, but opponents of measures like this will claim that there’s no evidence this kind of thing will stop a school shooting. However, much of that is because of the deterrence effect from a would-be killer knowing that he may just end up dead without doing much of anything else. The other part is, admittedly, that school shootings are a lot more rare than some people would have you believe.
I applaud this district for doing what needs to be done. I hope everyone follows and the idea of school shootings ends because those would-be attackers have to account for being dead far too early for their fame to be achieved.
It might just move the attacks out of schools, but that’s a win in and of itself.
At least then our kids are protected and our rights remain.
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